The Young People's Campaign​ The Campaign for Social Change and Sustainable Solutions

What's it About...

​Solutions Young People's Campaign is designed to promote youth voice, youth choice and youth power. This 21st century grassroots initiative partners with young people to educate, organize and mobilize around the concept of generational equity and inclusion within the systems, processes and structures that directly affect the young people.​

Theory. Research. Practice.​

The need for this type of initiative is backed by research commissioned by the local philanthropic community. In 2011, The Heinz Endowments retained the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO), in partnership with the Movement Strategy Center (MSC), to assist in identifying appropriate strategies for strengthening the full participation of young people as active agents of reform. The FCYO and MSC team found that while there was a strong desire to build more powerful approaches to youth engagement, there were few groups in Pittsburgh engaged in youth organizing, a proven engagement strategy for youth-led systemic change.

The FCYO and MSC team also found that the youth leadership and civic engagement efforts that were in place were fragmented and that building coherence across this landscape would be necessary to support effective youth organizing. Research would agree that there needs to be more pro-social opportunities for youth to develop skills and to become civically engaged. Without meaningful avenues for civic participation and expression, youth frustration can lead to apathy, economic and social instability, or violent demonstrations. Activities centers and ballcourts, in other words, are not enough.​